


The Birds and the Bees

by TWDObsessive



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Established Relationship, Explanations, Fluff, Judith is Eight, Love, M/M, Questioning, The sex talk every parent dreads
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-12 03:54:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9054328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TWDObsessive/pseuds/TWDObsessive
Summary: Daryl and 8-year old Judith go hunting together and Judy starts asking the kind of questions no parent wants to deal with.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little drabble. Think of it as a Christmas gift for all of you lovely people who share this Rickyl obsession with me!
> 
> Unbeta'd because I don't want to work my beta on Christmas Day!

“You got it, Papa! You got it!” Judith squealed as she rushed ahead of Daryl towards the buck he’d gotten with just one shot. 

“You’re the one that tracked it, Girlie. This one’s all yours,” he said with a proud smile. Carl never took much to hunting. Wanted to be more like his old man, protecting the town and taking care of the walkers. 

Judy, though, Daryl knew when she was four that she was gonna take after him. Shit, by six she could track better and walk quieter than Rick could. Now at eight it wouldn't be long til he could start teaching her on the smaller sized crossbow he'd picked up ages ago and hid in the attic of the house for the right time. Right time might be coming.

“It's an eight-pointer, Papa!!” she said as she ran her fingers over the rack. Daryl's pet name for her was Girlie but wasn't nothing girly about her. She kept her long dark hair up in a camouflage ballcap. Once she was old enough to start picking out her own clothes there were no more dresses and nothing pink. Her favorite color, according to her, was camo. She was forever in jeans and Daryl one time caught her with a pocket knife trying to replicate a tear in one knee like Daryl had in the ones he’d been wearing. She idolized her Papa, of that there was no doubt.

“You gonna help me get the gut bag out of this deer or are you gonna paint its nails?” he joked as she kept admiring it.

“Ewww, Papa. You know I hate nail polish. It smells disgusting and it's always pink,” she said as she pulled her own knife and cut around the stomach lining after Daryl made the opening slit. Daryl took a slug of water from his canteen as he watched her proudly.

“Papa? If you and Daddy are both boys, how’d I get born?”

Daryl immediately spit every drop of that water all over the back end of the deer.

“What!?”

“Only girls can have babies,” she said as she tugged at the gut sack, not realizing how agonizing a conversation like this was supposed to be to the older party involved. 

“Who the hell’s walking around talking to an eight-year-old about shit like that?” he asked with a bit of a protective growl.

“Enid,” Judith said as Daryl coughed up another attempted sip of water.

“Is she pregnant!?!?” Daryl asked in a way that sounded more like Rick than him. Rick was always the worry wart. Daryl just took care of whatever needed taking care of.

Judy looked up at him as she tugged at the gut bag. “No, Papa. She ain’t. We was just talkin’.”

“Well, don't hang out with Enid anymore. She talks too much,” Daryl answered as he handed his little girl the canteen.

“Ain't ya gonna answer my question?” she asked.

“Maybe you should ask your dad that one.”

“But you're both my dad.”

Shit. She had a point. Daryl sat down next to her and pulled off her cap so her long brown locks fell past her shoulders.

She cocked her head up at him, a trait she’d picked up from Rick. “Your momma had pretty long hair just like you,” he said quietly. “And she was so strong. She could kill walkers and she carried you in her belly for nine months and kept you safe in this world. She would have been so proud to see what a smart, strong kid you become.” He took a breath and could tell she was still waiting to hear more. “And she kept your brother alive which is a hell of a feat right there cause… well, you know how your brother is.”

She nodded. “Braver than he is smart.”

“Don't say that, Girlie. It's mean,” Daryl said trying not to laugh at the truth of it.

“It's true though. Ain't nothin’ wrong with being brave.”

Daryl smiled and shook his head.

“So since a boy and a girl make a baby, which boy made me? You or Daddy?”

Daryl put her hat back on her. “You gonna love one of us more if you found out who it was that made yah?” he asked.

“Noooo!” she said like it was the silliest thing she ever heard. 

“Then it shouldn't matter, should it? You belong to both of us. There ain't nothin’ that makes one of us more yours than the other.”

“When did my mom die?” Judith asked, thankfully bailing on the who’s my daddy question which was a relief because frankly it wasn't Rick OR Daryl.

“Right after you were born, Sweetheart.”

“Oh,” Judith said softly as she poked at the gut bag with a stick.

“Does somebody always die when they have a baby?”

“No, Darlin’. You know that Maggie’s alive and she’s got little Rheese. 

“But his Daddy died,” Judy countered.

“Just a coincidence, Darlin’. Wasn't cause of the baby.” Daryl’s expression changed as he answered the question and he saw the bat hit Glenn again in his mind. He remembered it so damned vividly even after all this time. Rick had mostly convinced him it wasn't his fault but guilt still occasionally curled up in his belly like a cold ranch-hand curling up by a campfire.

“So you and daddy couldn't have a baby if you wanted one even though you kiss all the time ‘cause you are both boys?”

Daryl smiled and shook his head. “Nah. We got the two best kids ever. Don't need no more anyways.”

“But I could have a baby with Rheese?”

Daryl stood and looked down. “Rheese is five and you are eight and the two of you are forbidden to do anything more than thumb wrestle til your twenty.”

Judy laughed at Daryl's fluster. “Don't worry, Papa. I ain't gonna kiss him and get cooties.”

“That's right. You’ll get cooties and they ummm… itch real bad and there ain't no cure.”

Daryl picked up the deer and started dragging it as Judy walked by his side, stuffing her hair back up in her hat the way she likes it.

“Papa, remember how me and you never tell lies?” 

Shit. Kid was getting too damn smart for her own good. She was gonna call him on this cootie bullshit. Right when he thought he’d finally plugged the leak on one hell of an awkward conversation. But before he could confess and apologize, Judy spoke in a loud whisper.

“I lied. Enid’s pregnant.”

**Author's Note:**

> In Memoriam of Glenn Rhee whom I still miss terribly every episode.


End file.
